The Blessing of Listening Daily

Just as God gave the Israelites fresh manna each day, He also wants to give us something fresh from the Word daily. We become spiritually weak when we try to live for several days on what He's provided for today. We might think it makes little difference if we are not in the Word daily, but Solomon indicated we will fail to apply it in some area of our lives:

"Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge" (Proverbs 19:27). Our ability to live by the Word hinges on our continually listening.

God implies that to forget devotions is stranger than for a bride to forget her wedding ornaments: "Does a maiden forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number" (Jeremiah 2:32). With His Word being so crucial to our lives, why might we neglect it?

One of the reasons we fail to regularly read God's Word is that we don't plan to. We get up day after day, and we haven't decided where to read. Pressing duties soon sidetrack us, and another day passes without significant time with an open Bible. If we want renewal in our devotional lives badly enough, we will make sufficient plans.

William Law's pointed words are helpful: "If you will here stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it."

Father, give us grace to intend to faithfully listen to You speak through Your Word.

"Happy are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates" (Proverbs 8:34 NLT).